Cops honor 3, play in benefit hockey game

Nassau County police squared off against their Suffolk counterparts Saturday in a hockey game, but the final score hardly mattered.

The real bottom line for the Nassau Coliseum event was the thousands of dollars raised for the families of three officers killed in the line of duty.

It was the first major benefit organized by the police benevolent associations to honor Nassau officers Michael J. Califano, 44, of Wantagh, and Geoffrey Breitkopf, 40, of Selden, and Suffolk Officer Glen Ciano, 45, of Bayport.

"They are honoring my dad in a way that in a million years he would have never imagined," said Michael Califano, 14.

His father died Feb. 4 when a dozing driver's flatbed tow truck struck his patrol car after he had pulled over another vehicle on the Long Island Expressway.

Califano's wife, Jackie, who was at the game with her three sons, said, "The pain hasn't gone, but knowing that people are there for you really helps."

Breitkopf's son, Connor, who attended with his mother and brother, dropped the ceremonial puck before the game started.

Geoffrey Breitkopf was accidentally shot and killed March 12 after being mistaken for an armed suspect by a Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officer in Massapequa Park.

Ciano was killed by a drunken driver in February 2009. His wife, Susan, and their two children were not at the game.

More than 800 tickets to the hockey game were sold at $40 each. T-shirts and commemorative pucks were also sold at the game, won by Suffolk police 7-4.

All proceeds will go to the families to help pay for child care expenses and college tuition, said James Carver, president of Nassau Police Benevolent Association."This game shows that these guys' lives meant something and that we will always be here for their families and children," Carver said.